It has been known for many years to paint walls, ceilings, canvasses and other surfaces with rollers as opposed to brushes, sponges or other devices. While some rollers are intended for single use, others are intended to be reused, and must be cleaned. Depending on the thickness and type of material used in the nap of the roller cover, cleaning of the roller covers in particular can be messy and time consuming, and can utilize an inordinate amount of solvent.
Numerous devices have been developed over the years for cleaning roller covers. One such device is the paint spinner, which engages a roller cover from one end, and rotates it along its longitudinal axis with sufficient rapidity to expel the paint from the cover by centrifugal force. It is known to use such paint spinners under a water faucet, in the open air, or inside a bucket or solvent container which is capable of catching the expelled paint. It is also known to use various means of spinning the roller cover, including adaptations to electric drills, hand powered rotary drills, and what is colloquially known as a Yankee screwdriver mechanism.
In the Yankee screwdriver mechanism, a spiraled or twisted driving rod is reciprocated inside a hub, causing a chuck or clamp to rotate in a single direction. Mechanisms operating according to this principle have been known for many years, particularly with respect to hand-operated screwdrivers and drills, and its application to paint spinners is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,794,295, 2,884,709 and 2,912,769 to Kruger, each of which are incorporated herein in their entirety. Paint spinners utilizing the Yankee screwdriver mechanism are commercially successful, and are generally available through outlets catering to commercial painters.
One major advantage of the Yankee screwdriver mechanism is that it is hand operated, and it can therefore be utilized without proximity or connection to an electrical outlet. One of the drawbacks, however, of using a hand-operated as opposed to a motor operated paint spinner is that the roller cover can only be spun at a relatively slow speed. Commercially available paint spinners utilizing the Yankee screwdriver mechanism, for example, rotate the roller cover at only about 400 revolutions per minute. This is adequate for roller covers having an outer diameter of about two inches or more, but is inadequate for rotating roller covers of significantly smaller diameters, such as "weenie" roller covers having an outer diameter of only about one inch.